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The Nile
The whaling vessel the Nile was a barkentine, meaning she had a square rigged foremast and fore-and-aft rigged main and other masts. In 1875, under the command of Captain John Orin Spicer, she took on board a seventeen-year old George Comer for his first voyage to the Arctic. At this time the vessel was owned by Williams & Haven Co., of New London, Connecticut.
Between 1874 and 1878 Spicer made four trips to the Eastern Arctic on the Nile, bringing back tons of oil and baleen to New London.
It seems that from 1879, Spicer rather sailed on the Era, the other ship owned by A.C. Williams & Co.. As the Roswell King, another ship owned by A.C. Williams & Co., was used as a trading station at Akuliak in the Hudson Strait, the Nile was used as a whaling ship but also as a cargo ship to bring supply up North and bring back whale oil, whale bone and furs back to New London. Captain Spicer was one of the share holders in A.C. Williams & Co..